Whether you’ll be hitting the road for a big adventure or heading down the road for some groceries, you and your passenger’s safety is always important, especially when it comes your little bundle of joy. It’s a sad reality that hundreds of children are killed in crashes due to improper car seat installation or practices. To help avoid something like this we want to help point out the 8 most common car seat mistakes and tell you how to fix it so that you can better protect the ones you care for most. Take a few minutes to check out the mistakes below and then check out your car seat? Think something could be adjusted, but not sure? Bring your car seat to the nearest fire department and they can help ensure you or help you with any car seat needs! If you’re looking to upgrade your vehicle to one with more advanced driver assist and safety technologies to help keep you and your passenger’s safer, stop into Fiore Volkswagen today!

The child is turned face-forward too early

Babies must ride facing the rear until they are at least 1 year old and weighs 20 pounds – Experts recommend waiting even longer but it is up to the parent

Some parents don’t like facing the baby to the rear because they have trouble seeing the baby’s face, but it is important that the child doesn’t face forward in case of a crash. A solution is to get a childproof mirror to hang on the backseat headrest to see the baby.

The seat isn’t installed tightly enough

Most people don’t know how tight they should be pulling the safety belt, the answer is as tight as possible. When you jiggle the area where the safety belt is pulled through, the chair should not move more than 1 inch in any direction!

Harness straps are too loose

A big mistake is not tightening the harness straps enough, this because they don’t want to make it too tight or uncomfortable for the child. The correct way is the straps should be tightened so that the slack can’t be pinched between an adult’s thumb and forefinger. This ensures that the child won’t slip too far down in the seat and that the child won’t fall out.

Infant seat angled incorrectly

The seat must be reclined no more than 45-degree angle, just enough so the child doesn’t flop forward but if he/she is positioned anymore than that they could be thrown out between the straps headfirst.

Harness straps are in wrong slots

When the child is facing the rear position, the straps should be in slots at or just below the shoulder. If the child is old enough to be facing forward, the straps should come through the uppermost slots.

Harness retainer clip is out of place

The clip should always be at the child’s armpit level.

The locking clip is out of place

If needed, it should be positioned no more than an inch from the safety-belt latch.

The safety belt isn’t in locked mode.

This information will be provided to you in the owner’s manual of your car, determine what type of belts you have and follow the directions regarding how they must be used with a child-safety restraint.